Automatic book-mark



(ModeL) E'.H.FOOTE. AUTOMATIC BOOK MARK.

Patented Sept. 4

UNITED STATES PATENT -OFFICE.

{EDWARD H. FOOTE, oEsoMERvILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

AUTOMATIC BOOK-MARK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of LettersFatent No. 284,404, dated September 4, 1883.

Application. filed February 19, 1883. (Model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD H. FOOTE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Automatic Book-Mark, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description and specificatiom ers, which will afford a ready means of at once 1 The object of my invention is to provide a cheap, simple, and convenient device which can be attached to any book having; stiff covopening the book. at the place at which it was last open before without having to turn the leaves back and forth, and which will beiselfadjusting, allowing the leaves to be turned without being touched itself, so that the book may be read or used from the first page to the last without touching the mark, which automatically shows at any time the book. is taken upthe place at which it was last closed. I attain this object by the use of the device shown in the accompanying drawings, in

which Figure l is a side elevation or view 5 Fig. 2, a view from above, and Fig. 3 a view from beneath, of the device in the position shown in Fig. 1. Figs. 4 and 5 show the device attached to a book; and Figs. 6, 7, and 8 show different equivalent forms of the part of the device by which it is attached to the book.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views. 7 I

The device consists of a piece of spring-wire, A B, of suitable length and gage, bent into a coil, A O D E, of nearly two full turns, Fig. 1, then carried straight to F, where it is bent at right angles nearly in theplane of the coil, forming the arm F B. It is also bent, as shown at G, Fig. 2, at the upper part of the coil, where it crosses the edge of the book COVBI'.

To attachthe device to a boolqtlie coil is edge of the book, the arm F B entering "between the leaves at the desired place and about one or. two inches from the bottom of 5c the book, and exerting, byvirtue of the spring inherent in the-wire and allowed by the meth= 0d of its attachment to the cover, an elastic pressure upon the leaves between it and the back-cover. The method of attachment will be plainly seen in Figs. 4 and 5, the leaves being represented as cut away in Fig. 4 to show the inside of the cover, and Fig. 5 represent= ing the book closed, showing the outside of the cover. r In use, the arm F B having been placed in its proper position between the leaves, all that it is necessary to do to turn one or more leaves is to take hold of the leaf or leaves at the upper corner, 1?, Fig. 4, and raise up, at the same time pulling slightlyinthe direction indicated by the arrow R S, Fig. 4, so as to draw the leaf out from under the arm F B. In order that this "may be done easily, it is necessary that the arm F B be placed near the bottom 70.

of the book.

That portion of the device which clasps it to the book may be made in a different form from the coil A G D E, Figs. 1, 2, and 3. This coil is undoubtedly at once the cheapest, sim- 7 5 Y plest, and best for the large majority of cases; but such arrangements of the wire as, for instance, shown in Figs. 6, 7, and 8 might prove more advantageous in a few cases. i

The principle of the device and its principal 8o and essential part being the bent arm B F E, fastened to the book-cover in such manner that it always exerts an elastic pressure upon the leaves between the arm B F and the cover to which the device is fastened, any form of the wire between E and A which will secure this end may be used.

I11.Fig. 8 the short arm goes inside the bookcover and the twisted portion of the device outside. 0

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and for which I desire to obtain Letters Patent, is-

A device for an automatic book-mark, consisting of a spring-wire, A B, Fig. 1, of suitable length and gage, bent at right anglesat F, Fig. 1, and also bent into a coil at E, as

shown in Figs. 1,2, and 3, which coil shall serve to fasten the device securely to the bookthe leaves between it and the cover to which cover, as shown-in Figs. 4 and 5, and at the it is attached, all substantially as shown and 10 same time act to some extent as a spring, described;

opposing, in conjunction with the inherent elasticity of the wire E EB, an elastic resist- EDWARD FOOTE' Y ance to any motion of E F 13 across or in the Witnesses: plane of the cover, thus causing the arm F B ABNER A. PHIPPs,

to exert at all times an elastic pressure upon GEORGE S. LITTLEFIELD. 

